Chatting with a shadow

What follows is a conversation I had with a person (alias 'High House Shadow') while he was sending endless waves of rancorous troops to attack my village on the network game site 'Tribal Wars'. Despite his clear devotion to game mechanics, there is something to be learnt in the text.

High House Shadow today at 01:36

Hi there. I suppose my intentions are fairly obvious... Nothing personal bud. :)

6li7ch today at 14:59

Of course it's personal. We're persons, aren't we?

I hope you have fun imagining the electronic screams of my poor defenceless villagers.

Have a nice day!

High House Shadow today at 17:16

*Chuckles* That is an amusing image. 
By the way... why don't you have a wall? D:

6li7ch today at 17:28

Well, no-one was attacking me. I didn't really need one before now.

High House Shadow today at 17:29

mmh... well you can't rely on your ability to build a wall after someone starts attacking you! XP

That thing can take like six hours a level when it gets higher up. =/

6li7ch today at 17:38

To be honest I wasn't expecting such a swift and focused attack from in-land so soon. You also happened to catch me on a day when my modem was down, lucky fella. I would have given a much swifter response if the universe hadn't decided to send a massive thunderstorm my way.

Anyways, best of luck to you - and just so you know, I wasn't a threat to you in any way. Attacking people is a dreadfully unmannerly thing to do.

High House Shadow today at 17:41

D'oh. Sorry about that mate; I wasn't aware of your modem. That was a bit of a low blow. =/ Nothing I can do about that, however.

And... well, this is tribal wars], bud, not tribal hugs. :P To get stronger, I have to take others out. From your village I'll be in a great position to take out that MANIC cluster you have right next to you. :3

6li7ch today at 17:59

Sigh.

Gn0me tried to point out the exact same thing, but I couldn't really see his side. One may as well name life 'survival' and insist that the only option available to us is to kill and dominate in order to achieve that end. Perhaps you've never played Bioshock, or read 'The Lord of the Flies'?

You see, we all make choices. What others expect our choices to be are besides the point. You are the one with the button in front of you. You chose to push it.

Just as I chose to join this world to make the option to push that button available, but refused to undergo that essential final action.

I do not hate you, and you have nothing to apologise for. I do not even pity you. Your choices are yours, and mine are mine, regardless of the name we give our game.

High House Shadow today at 18:05

Oh, I love bioshock. However, this game only really has two options; kill or be killed. I suppose you could even last for a time on pure defense... but by chosing not to prepare for the eventual attack that will, you dig your own grave. =/

I am... not certain why you would mention not pitying me, for I am playing this game as it was meant to be played and no pity is due the victor.

...Still. You talk as if it were too late. It isn't, you know. You could still give me a run for my money, if you're good; but it would be difficult and in all likelihood would end the same. Still, nothing's impossible. I've seen much more unlikely scenarios.

6li7ch today at 18:24

Bioshock has four options if you include yours: kill or be killed, and whether or not you save the Little Sisters. One reflects the goal of the game (staying alive & escaping Rapture) while the other reflects how you go about achieving that goal (co-operation or domination)

I would argue that the same exists for this game. If the players weren't so focused on the perception of the arena as one of bloodshed, co-operation could easily ensure no-one dies and the game is perpetuated eternally. Think of it as a figurative paradise which due to a technicality of human nature cannot reach fruition. In a balanced world attackers and defenders would be equally matched, and we would be trapped in a glorious place of eternal conflict - rather than eternal stagnation under total dominion or total co-operation.

You misunderstand my offer of pity, and why it was withheld. If anything were pitiable, it would be that you believe you are acting the way you are supposed to because someone else told you it is so, rather than finding your own reason to do so. I withhold my pity until you give me permission to do so because you may already be aware of this, and I cannot fully ascertain that your actions are that of a 'slave' (in the Bioshock sense) and not of one who has mastered himself.

Lastly; of course I will continue to defend myself as best I can. How else would we be able to continue our conversation?

High House Shadow today at 18:51

Hhmm.. you have an interesting perception on the game. However, I must say that I do not agree. The ultimate objective of this game is, as a tribe, to dominate most of the world over the course of several years. As a player, it is to grow as much as you can and help your tribe in whatever way you can. I agree that it would be much more fun if all our battles were evenly matched, but this just is not the case. I actually like the risk, the possibility of absolute defeat, because it comes with the reward of absolute victory.

If you want my reason for attacking you? Well that's simple. In the short term, I want to gain one more village. Your village will put me up to #1 on the continent. :) Aside from that it will put me into a good position to cut into the manic cluster, and my tribe will war with them very soon if things continue the way they are. So I will be taking villages there as well. In the mid term, I am to be the dominant player in the continent... in the dominant tribe in the continent. And in the long term I hope to me a major contender in the wars to come; though I doubt I will ever make it to the end of world 56.

High House Shadow today at 19:37

...Ouch. >.> I can't believe I forgot to send my mounted archers with that attack! Lol. Well congradulations, your friend is indeed going to put a nasty dent in my troops with that...

6li7ch today at 19:47

Ah, domination. Everybody craves control, and almost everybody loses.

Think about it this way. You yourself admit that the chances of 'winning' world 56 are low. Accepting that you have very little choice in the matter of succession, the only absolute control you have is over the small-scale actions you choose at the beginning of the game. 97% of the players will not reach their ultimate objective, and so mathematically speaking it makes sense to treat yourself as part of that majority when considering what actions you may perform.

To put it simply, we 'all' die, regardless of how we struggle, and so the true actions of worth we are left with are not those which lead towards absolute victory, but those which determine the fate of our 'Little Sisters'; those pure and innocent parts of ourselves we so readily sacrifice in the hopes of acquiring victory.

Nothing ends. When this world is unified under one tribe a new world will be populated with the forces that held together the old. There will be no 'Little Sisters' to tempt the morality of the players - only the strategic greed, loyalty and domination they have come to see as tools of survival. When Tribal Wars isn't enough for its players, what do you think happens to the 'nothing personal' attitude they have trained themselves to feel?

I am here merely to suggest that there is a different course of action. Regardless of any 'ultimate' objective, it is not the only objective. Understanding that you have a choice in the matter is all I ask.

You make a good point in your first paragraph where you say the possibility of absolute defeat makes a game more interesting. Thank you for doing so. It will give me something new to consider for a time.

High House Shadow today at 19:57

I suppose I'm not out to win. I'm out to do well and to have a good run. When I clicked the 'join world' button, it was with the knowledge and acceptance of the fact that, one day, I would lose. I would lose my villages, my weeks or months of hard work. Thus, when it actually happened, I wasn't disappointed. The only thing I was disappointed about was that I did poorly while I was still a contender. So you know what I did? I took the lessons I learned and restarted, to do better. 

And regarding your third paragraph; most people have a good grasp of the difference between real life and a game. Just because somebody wins a game doesn't mean they feel no compassion towards people.

6li7ch today at 21:04

Yes, most people have a good grasp on reality, but with all due respect (and by this I mean I am sorry if I offend you for saying something highly insensitive) most people are idiots.

As you say, you have put weeks or months of hard work into dominating this game. Yet you deny that hard work has any effect on your real life. By this the game becomes meaningless - a passing amusement by which you learn nothing and surrender hours of your life to pointless inaction. Didn't you suggest a game is made fun when one includes the concept of absolute defeat? How then can you insist that separating the actual destruction of your empathic ability from its virtual destruction is as fun as my own fusion of a real world and a virtual one?

I insist to myself that my actions on world 56 matter because it means all the hard work I put into it is not lost - it goes towards fighting an 'absolute defeat' of my moral standing.

To do otherwise is to play half a game - to sense things without attaching an emotional value to them. 

This is the true loss. All your hard work and the hours consumed by world 56, the late night build cues and the strategic plotting long hours into the night are worthless unless you accept they have an effect on reality.

Reasons why I love my planet

Sometimes when you’re in the midst of famine, terrorism, viral outbreaks and high finance it’s difficult to see the freckles of goodness that spot Earth (hrm… freckles = melanoma = cancer… bad analogy). The fact is they do exist. As most of the problems I have listed have to do with human beings and all of them are perpetuated by human behaviour it’s best to look outside the species for a ray of sunshine (sunshine = metabolic radiation = melanoma = cancer… why do I bother…)

So recently I’ve been preoccupied with the utter coolness of life on Earth when it isn’t constantly lopping grenades at other life on Earth. This was partially triggered by my vegetarianism post, which ignited my dormant respect for vegetable matter and its diversity. So here goes.

Plants:

Plants are awesome. No, I’m not a hippie, and I’m not on drugs. Really, they are. They are the oldest surviving kingdom of organic life on Earth save bacteria, but to be honest it isn’t really that difficult to survive for millions of years when you are a single cell organism. But when you are capable of perpetuating your existence simply by drinking up light and dirt, you reach a new echelon of epic-ness.

The way I understand it, plants are differentiated from other forms of life by the fact that they have more chloroplasts than mitochondria and have more than a modicum of cell matter. Plants also have a very simple nervous system which allows them to undertake basic perceive-react programming without the bells and whistles.

Plants have two qualities I appreciate. The first is adaptability. They can reattach damaged limbs not only from their own species but from other plant species. Younger plants can graft parts of older plants in order to reach maturity faster. How cool is that? If I could graft a third arm without extensive surgery I’d be a much happier man.

The second quality is patience. Plants don’t feel the need to rush – everything they need will come to them provided they wait long enough. They stand around in the shade, eating and growing, and eventually they grow taller than the shade and blossom. If an axe is left next to a tree, they don’t avoid it – they grow over it, absorbing the blade little by little until the axe is fixed within them where it cannot do any harm. Plants don’t have that vibrant ‘kill or be killed’ mentality that we animals do. Some live and others die, but none complain.

The symbiosis of plants is to be appreciated too. Think of barbs and burs. Plants have learnt to both predict and count on the fact that animals will find them tasty and attempt to eat them, so that they can reproduce. The same holds for the Venus Flytrap – plants are well acquainted with the concept of bait. When you think of how such a mechanism must have arisen, you can gain some appreciation for just how old the plant kingdom is. They’ve been there right from the beginning, through every incarnation of the planet that yielded the genetic potential for birds, reptiles, insects, fish and mammals.

You are never too old to climb a tree (although I wouldn’t recommend it if you are one hundred and thirty, and if you are, congratulations on learning how to use the internet). If you have not climbed a tree within the past month, in the name of whatever you hold dear stop reading this and do so now.

Welcome back.

I sat in a tree today. Granted, it was in the middle of a parking lot, but you can’t be pernickety when you live in the city. Trees evoke a primal emotion within me. Perhaps it is some residual ancestral programming sparked in my coiling myriad of DNA helixes. Climbing trees makes me feel safe and distant from the world below. I read somewhere that most people hardly ever look above eyelevel, and it’s true. If you ever need to get away from everything, or if you ever need a quiet place to think and reflect, seek the gentle companionship of a tree.

Bacteria:

I know I bashed them for not evolving the way we have, but now I’m taking it back. Bacteria are amazing. Back in yonder days when complex organisms didn’t exist, they probably seemed like lazy slobs. But now they are swimming in the bloodstreams and acidic juices of every life form on the planet, and staying small looks like a pretty good idea. Imagine a whole city nestled in your kidney. Imagine what it must be like to have such a simple code of behaviour instructing you – divide and conquer.

As with human beings, there are two main types of bacteria. The first type is ‘bad’. These are viruses, who focus on cell division at the detriment of their host. They consume all the resources that keep us going and use it to grow. If the virus is unlucky, it eventually ends up killing itself by destroying the host and any path to a new one.

The second type are ‘good’ bacteria. They believe in moderation, and spend their time conquering more than dividing. They keep a constant watch for bad bacteria and fight against them for territory, keeping the host alive and killing off large numbers of themselves in the process. Sometimes all this internal warfare really does feel like someone has dropped a nuke in your stomach.

Bacterial relationships are reflected pretty well in Star Wars. For those of you who have been living under a rock since the 70s, I’m talking about midi-chlorians, the fictional micro-organisms which reside in every living thing and are responsible for the phenomenon known as ‘The Force’. Basically ‘The Force’ is separated into two sides (sound familiar?), Light and Dark. The Light Side is harnessed by controlling one’s emotions and using moderation with every action one performs. It is not ‘good’ as some people may see ‘good’, but most people will agree it is synonymous with balance. The Jedi (users of the light side) are beings who have dedicated themselves to perpetuating civilisation by curbing the effects of such emotions as hatred and love (yes, love. The Jedi insist that unchecked love leads to fear, fear to power lust, and power lust to hatred).

Similarly bacteria are separated into their two groups in this way: moderation (the light side) and domination (the dark side).

We have a lot to learn from bacteria, provided we haven’t already done so from Hollywood.

Bacteria are there to remind us that life is everywhere, and that we are never alone. Do you consider your soul the sole resident of your body?

I don’t.

 Do you believe that all independent life has its own soul?

I do. There are approximately 40 000 000 000 individual bacteria cells in 1 gram of organic matter. If all souls are equal or at the very least can be said to have begun equal, you need acknowledge that 10¹⁴ thinking, feeling life forms are flowing through your veins like empyreal fire at this very moment.

None of us are alone, and all of us matter.

Books:

Ok, technically they are not alive, but they are outside the human species. Some things breathe, and other things make those first things breathe. Books are those things. Those un-breathing things, that is.

Language alone is a broken instrument. When we speak to one another, we are primarily concerned with three things; the ease of communication, the speed of communication and the correctness of communication. While these are similar, they are not identical.

‘Ease’ of communication refers to the rate at which understanding is perceived to flow. It avoids unnecessary repetition, the use of synonyms and analogy which otherwise lengthen the process of speaking.

‘Correctness’ of communication is the rate at which understanding actually flows. This one can be difficult, because sometimes people say they understand what you are saying and end up killing an American president when all you really wanted was for them to pass you a nacho. The factors affecting correctness are word use, pronunciation and connotation. For example if one pronounces the word ‘enchilada’ as ‘bazooka’ you are likely to trigger a war.

‘Speed’ of communication is exactly what it sounds, ironically. People don’t want to stand in the rain talking about umbrellas for half an hour before opening one. In conversation you need to get your point across quickly. Focus, mental flexibility and verbal reflex get you there. Some people like me really struggle with this, and are left soaking wet, babbling about umbrellas long after all conversational participants have fled.

Books are the base upon which language is honed into a finer tool. They contain centuries’ worth of analytical and speculative data which have been condensed in a variety of forms and ways to iterate the exact thoughts of their makers.

This all sound very cold, which is in no way how I feel about books.

A library is a safe harbour. In a confusing and often demanding world, books give us clarity and respite. They ask for nothing, and give everything.

For times when we feel Earth is devoid of any and all virtue, we can turn to fiction and imagine things like honour, chivalry and self-sacrifice are called for at every moment. In books Evil need not be devious or cloaked in deception, but is openly recognised and easily fought. Anything I have ever thought worth knowing was learnt from fiction. I reckon the real world could do with a touch of the inexplicable.

Perhaps the greatest phenomenon exclusive to literature is that it in the end the art form has very little to do with the writer. Words are meat – they refer to those physical entities and equations that bind together to create a story. One does not feel sad because one reads the word ‘despair’. One feels sad because they have empathy and imagination, and it is the reader who is responsible for defining the surreal perimeters simple phrases like ‘a war-torn wasteland of mountainous debris’ evoke. I did not put a sun or a moon in that phrase, but there is a good chance you saw one when you pictured it. Books remind us that we are all artists, and we can all create. Books cause a revolution in the mind by activating the senses and charging electricity into a dormant brain.

Books, while unliving and unloving, cause others to live and love.